We all know that the biggest pressure on cost of living right now is housing. This requires
urgent practical action but how much direct funding has the Labor government committed
to tackle this housing crisis? Precisely zero. They found plenty of direct money
for the Stage Three Tax Cuts for submarines - yes almost a trillion dollars - yet no direct
direct funding for the housing crisis. Look, it's not a novel or radical idea for
governments to directly fund and provide public housing. All over the world today there are
housing commissions and housing bodies building significant numbers of quality, well-designed
housing to meet the needs of their communities - and we've actually had successful Housing
Programs right here in Australia in the past. A little history lesson: during and post World
War II, Australia was in the midst of a terrible housing crisis. Construction had slowed due to the
diversion of materials and labour to the war effort but in that case the Australian
government - a Labor government at the time, actually - wanted to tackle the scale of the
housing crisis so they established the Commonwealth Housing Commission in 1943
and the Commonwealth State Housing Agreement in 1945. That was an agreement with the states to
establish and operate public housing funded by the Commonwealth through cheap loans.
The Housing Commission promoted housing as a right for all Australians and had a
very clear directive: 'that it provide as many homes as possible for as many
people as possible in the shortest time possible', Deputy speaker, and it worked!
At the peak of this public housing build in the late 60s around 80, 000 homes were built over a
5-year period. That's when the population was half of what it is right now, so in today's terms the
Commonwealth contribution to these homes was $8 billion dollars, almost 4 times what this
government is proposing today - IF the fund makes any money at all. Now, central to the workability
of the traditional model of public housing in operation all over the world and still existing
to a degree in some schemes here in Australia, is government ownership of those houses. They're
public assets. They generate a return in the form of rent - set at 25% of the tenants
income - and accrue value in and of themselves. They quite literally pay for themselves over time.
One of the many irrational elements of Labor's proposed housing future fund, Deputy speaker,
is the complex and contorted arrangement to subsidize the private market and private
providers through the private for-profit system. The government has no equity in these homes so
not only does the bill not stack up in terms of the scale and the urgency of this housing crisis
that we're currently experiencing it, also doesn't stack up in a financial sense for the government.
What could possibly be the reason for this government's reluctance to simply
build public homes, and retain them as public assets for years to come?
One explanation could be that it might stop house prices and rents
from climbing at the absurd rate that they have been for so many years now...
Now this slowing down of the housing market is exactly what we do need to tackle the crisis but
it could put a real dent in the bottom lines of the big banks and the property developers
who fill the government's coffers come election time. So when it comes to building publicly-owned
nuclear submarines, Labor can easy easily find half a trillion dollars of direct investment.
When it comes to building publicly-owned genuinely affordable homes for people who need them on the
other hand, Labor cannot find a cent. Call me old-fashioned - call me old-fashioned - but when
people are sleeping in cars and tents across the country, when we have a shortfall of 640,
000 affordable homes, when thousands of people are at risk of eviction because their rent has spiked,
I really feel the government should just BUILD HOUSES not gamble money on the stock market and
possibly use the returns to subsidize private providers to maybe deliver some slightly less
expensive housing for a small number of people. JUST BUILD HOUSES. Just build beautifully
designed sustainable affordable public homes for everyone who needs them. We've done it before
in this country, the government should just build houses. Thank you Deputy speaker.